Camco to pay $7.5 million in illegal strip search settlement

MOUNT LAUREL (AP) -- Camden County has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit with people illegally strip searched at the county jail between 2003 and 2005.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs said that as many as 20,000 people may have been improperly searched and could be eligible for the money, which he said he expects to come to about $1,000 per person.

A smaller group of people who were held as long as 24 hours even after they posted bail could get even more, said Charles J. LaDuca, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.

The two original plaintiffs, Laverne Hicks and Michael Velez, are entitled to $15,000 each under the terms of the settlement.

Both were arrested on minor charges and strip searched.

In a court filing, Hicks said he arrested for not paying a previous traffic ticket. He paid his bail of $168, then was strip searched.

Velez said he was held for about 10 hours while police checked into whether he had any outstanding warrants. He had none.

The settlement must be approved by a federal judge before it takes effect.

The plaintiffs say that it was the policy of the jail for about two years to strip
search every one sent to the jail awaiting trial, even if there was no reason to think
the suspects were hiding contraband on their body.

Also, they said, some people who were arrested on charges as minor as failure to pay parking tickets we held in jail for up to 24 hours after they had paid bail while
officials checked to see if there were other warrants out for them.

The measures came amid broad efforts to reduce crime in Camden, a city that
consistently ranks as one of the nation's most crime-ridden.

LaDuca, who works in Washington, said the detention practice is one he has not seen elsewhere in the many similar cases he has handled.

But the strip searches, he said, happen in many jails.

"It's more common than you would ever imagine,'' he said.

LaDuca said that several federal judges have ruled that authorities may not strip
search suspects in non-felony cases unless they have reasonable suspicion of contraband. If so, the searches are conducted in private and only in the presence of corrections officers of the same gender as the detainee.

Jail officials in Camden County stopped conducting the routine strip searches after the lawsuit was filed in April 2005.

A spokesman for Camden County did not immediately return a call seeking comment.